Conservatives introduce Digital Privacy Act

As Industry Minister James Moore promised last week, on Tuesday afternoon the Conservatives introduced their Digital Privacy Act — a bill that makes several changes to both the way Canadians’ personal information must be protected and the situations in which in can be disclosed without their consent.

Unlike the Conservatives’ previous attempts to amend the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), the Digital Privacy Act — or S-4 — is being tabled in the Senate.

At the moment, it’s not clear why.

One of the more notable changes is a new requirement for organizations “to inform consumers when their personal information has been lost or stolen,” according to a government release.

Failing to do so, it adds, could mean fines of up to $100,000.

The fines, however, aren’t actually new, S-4 just changes when they can be applied.

Under section 28 of PIPEDA — offence and punishment — the new bill has added clauses that deal with breaches of security safeguards.

Organizations will now potentially face fines if they fail to report broadly-defined “personal information” breaches to both the privacy commissioner and affected individuals.

That said, they’ll be given plenty of time to comply.

“The Digital Privacy Act will…give complainants, including the Commissioner, up to a year after an investigation has been completed to ask the Federal Court of Canada to order an organization to comply with the law or to award damages to an individual who has been harmed as the result of a privacy violation,” the government release says.

“This allows enough time for an organization to voluntarily take corrective action or negotiate a compliance agreement, while maintaining the ability to take the matter to court.”

The Act also changes the way in which organizations must get consent to collect personal information, making that consent valid only when it’s reasonable an individual “would understand the nature, purpose, and consequence of the collection”.

Alice Wong, the minister of state for seniors, is quoted in the government’s release saying those elements of the legislation will protect seniors from financial abuse.

On the flip side, the government maintains the new bill will reduce red tape for businesses by making it easier for them use personal information in their normal day-to-day business activities.

That will apply, for example, to how they manage employees, conduct their due diligence when acquiring other companies, and process insurance claims, the release says.